A Little Good News about TLM in Paris, Countered with a Depressing Speculation about TLM in Santa Fe.

Count your blessings, but they may be ephemoral.

The Twitterer above asks rhetorically, “why do we get this extraordinary permission?” That is best answered with: don’t ask, just be grateful.

Still, the pessimism in your Tatler wonders, since Notre-Dame is being converted into a museum, maybe TLM is being considered just a museum piece, “living history,” celebrated for the benefit of tourists.

A similar situation exists in Santa Fe, with the lovely and historic San Miguel Chapel. Sold by the Archdiocese to the Christian Brothers in 1881 (and beautifully kept up by the latter, much to their credit), the ancient chapel is really only a museum. Latin masses are celebrated there, but by outsiders and take place as tourists tromp through the tiny space, chattering, with phones held high taking videos.

Lately however, even those masses have been suspended owing to the COVID virus and they have yet to resume. Whether or not they do is an open question as it is up to Archbishop Wester, a Pope Francis toadie if there ever was one, who dutifully shares his master’s revulsion for TLM. He has been making celebrations of it increasingly difficult throughout his diocese and may suppress them entirely at San Miguel Chapel, where they are already conveniently ended. It would this save the Archbishop a bit of muss and fuss as His Mediocrity continues the mission stamping out TLM at his superior’s behest.